Regional housing market slowly improving

THE housing market in the Yorkshire and Humberside region is continuing to steadily improve according to the latest housing market survey published by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors this week.

THE housing market in the Yorkshire and Humberside region is continuing to steadily improve according to the latest housing market survey published by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors this week.

The net balance of surveyors in the region are reporting rises rather than falls in house prices, which improved to a negative reading of 18 per cent from -27 per cent back in August and -36 per cent in July. So even though the figures are still in negative territory, it is evident that the market is slowly recovering.

The South of England is still leading the upturn in prices, with the net balance of surveyors reporting rises rather than falls for London and the South East, climbing to 79 per cent and 52 per cent respectively.

So even though the Yorkshire and Humberside region is steadily improving, it seems the South is recovering quicker.

The latest housing market survey also revealed that even more vendors in the region are returning to the market. Fifteen per cent of chartered surveyors reported that new instructions increased in September compared to a negative reading of 8 per cent in August.

In the South of England, the net balance was only 4 per cent of surveyors and that had fallen from 12 per cent in August. However this is most likely due to lack of supply. Transaction levels also continued to improve in Yorkshire and Humberside in September with sales per surveyor rising to 20 over the past three months.

Newly agreed sales also increased from 13 per cent in August to 44 per cent in September.

As a result, the closely watched sales to stock ratio (a measure of market slack and a lead indicator of future prices) edged upwards a little further. It has now risen for nine consecutive months and stands at 29, its highest level since December 2007.

Further proof the market in the region is steadily improving, is the pace of improvement in buyer interest which continued to increase for the third consecutive month.

The net balance of surveyors in Yorkshire and Humberside are reporting a rise rather than a decrease in new buyer enquiries. This increased from 39 per cent in August to 46 per cent in September.

Comparatively, the number of surveyors in the South reporting a rise in new buyer enquires dropped back from 71 per cent in August to 45 per cent in September.

Again, this is most likely due to the lack of houses on the market available for people to enquire about.

RICS Yorkshire & Humberside spokesperson Jon Charters-Reid, of Charters-Reid & Associates, said: “It’s fantastic that the market in our region is steadily making a good recovery.

“The downturn has meant that people have had to be more innovative in finding funding for buying houses, which is evident in the housing market survey results.

“Over the next few months we expect to see more new homes being built and coming onto the market again as builders and developers have gained confidence in the market, thanks to the increase in enquiries, demand and house sales.”

He added: “It looks as though the green shoots are beginning to really grow and if the banks bring back 95% home loans this would really accelerate the housing market’s recovering in our region.”

The RICS question on measuring house price changes is as follows:

“Indicate by how much average house prices have changed over the last three months.” (Answers either being – falling, the same or rising)

RICS housing market survey is the longest running monthly survey of house prices in the UK, collecting data since January 1978. The survey is cited by the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee at its monthly interest rate setting meetings.